NEW REPORT: Taking a Bite out of Climate Change: Why we should stop eating too much beef

NEW REPORT: Taking a Bite out of Climate Change: Why we should stop eating too much beef

Climate Focus is pleased to release a new publication, Taking a Bite out of Climate Change: Why we should stop eating too much beef, which explores the many reasons to reduce the consumption of beef – one of the key commodities driving deforestation. While much attention has been paid post-Paris to the need to reduce fossil-fuel consumption, the necessity of eating less beef and ensuring that forests remain standing cannot be overstated. Most notably, beef production requires both more land and freshwater than any other source of protein. In the context of a rapidly rising global population in a resource-limited world, diets must quickly shift to less resource-intensive protein sources. This new report examines the impacts of beef production on the climate, human health, and tropical forests and models the impacts of reducing beef consumption in the world’s three largest beef producers and consumers: Brazil, the U.S., and China. If per capita beef consumption were to fall by 50 percent in the U.S. and 25 percent in Brazil – as well as stay at current levels in China, a country with a rapidly expanding middle-class – emissions from the beef sector would fall by nearly 500 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent, equivalent to the removal of 100 million cars from the road. Other benefits would include improved public health, lower healthcare costs, and reduced pressure on forests.